Keili: The Dead Sleep in the Wilderness
by XthirteenX
Summary: This is both my book report on Keili and my short story for it so please tell me what you think about it!
1. Book Report

This is my Book report on Keili and I wanted to post it here so you all can see it tell me how I did and if you end up doing this too then you will have the main idea for it! Enjoy! Please tell me what you think about it!

Love,

XIII

Identify The Book:  
Keili is written by Yukako Kabei and is 228 pages long. It was illustrated by Shunsuke Taue, and published by Yen Press (U.S.) and Akita Shoten (Japan). The manga* adaption was named to the Great Graphic Novels for Teens 2009 list by the Young Adult Library Services Association(YALSA). Keili was released in July of 2009, it is the first book of a nine book series which will be released later on, the second book being released in March of 2010, the third September 2010, fourth in April 2011, fifth September 2011, sixth April 2012, seventh September 2012, eighth April 2013, and the last in September of 2013. The manga adaption is almost too violent to be a shojo* story but it is too bittersweet to be and typical shonen* series however for those who are looking for something darker and more deep this will be likely to please. The genre is a mix of Shojo manga, Action/Adventure, Drama, Mystery/suspense, and paranormal/supernatural all of which have created this wonderful and engaging story. The original title was Keili: Shishatachi wa Koya ni Nemuru.(Japan). Information was found at .  
Background:  
Kabei-san* has lived in an iron-enforced five-story building, three buildings down from a railroad station. At first the constant noise bothered her but now it has become like background music and a part of her life. However the horrid singing from the Japanese ballad across the street she could do without. Kabei-san received the ninth Dengeki Game Novel Awards, and she believes it was because of the 'background music' which gave her the inspiration for her novel, the story was similar to Keili and took place for the majority on a train. While writing she sat in a coffee shop for five to six hours on weekends.  
Setting:  
Keili takes place on another planet however they are not aliens, they are human they, eat, breathe, and speak just like we do. Their planet revolves around the church, it is said that a spaceship carrying the legendary, 'Eleven Saints and Five Families' came to the land, created the church, and left, leaving them to continue his teachings. Keili and Harvey visit many places on their 'adventure' one of the main ones being a graveyard for those who were killed by the Undying in the war. Like most of Kabei-san's stories there is a part in which they are on a train.  
Characters:  
Keili: Keili is the heroine of the story. She is an orphaned fourteen year old girl who has the ability to see the ghosts and spirits of the dead. Keili is deemed strange by the other students at the church but doesn't seem to mind when they ignore her. She has been able to see ghosts since she was very young and when she was around five she first saw an Undying. It was killed, right in-front of her. Keili's best friend is a ghost named Becca or Rebecca who is described as very beautiful with a soprano voice. Keili has long black hair and olive green eyes along with fair skin, usually in the story she is wearing her black church dress.  
Harvey/Ephraim: Harvey is one of the legendary Undying, also called the Demons of War. He fought in the war eighty years ago yet still appears the age of a high schooler or young college student. Harvey is easily annoyed, sarcastic, and sometimes mean but he has his moments when he can be thoughtful, caring, and sweet, not usually but it happens. Harvey has a very scruffy, sloppy, slovenly, and messy appearance. He wears a nylon half-coat and rough work pants, his hair and eyes are a rusty copper color. He also frequently smokes. The name he had gone by when he was still a veteran in the war is Ephraim, as he was called by Joachim, another Undying.  
The Corporal: The Corporal is the spirit of a veteran from the war who is trapped in an old radio. When he takes a bodily form it is a very static outline of a man, his left leg is gone, and he is wearing a uniform with the stars on it which represent his station which is "corporal'. Corporal has a habit of calling Harvey, Herbie, which annoys Harvey greatly. It is later revealed that harvey was the one to kill The Corporal.  
Joachim: Joachim is an Undying like Harvey. But unlike his former comrade he was hired by the church, hiding the fact that he is an Undying as well, and it working on stealing the cores of the Undying. Joachim also had enjoyed killing the humans during the war unlike Harvey who had remained emotionless on the matter but feels remorse for their death.  
Plot:  
Manga characters who can see ghosts are pretty common but Keili reminds us that the dead are only still around because they have unresolved pain from their past. While going with Becca to the train station she sees a dead body on the bench, but suprise the body moved. She met Harvey who had appeared dead but is actually a legendary Undying. The Undying were created from the recycled bodies of soldiers who are, as their name states, immortal and no matter the damage done to their body they will not die unless their core is separated from their body. A core is basically the same thing as a heart. Keili joins Harvey on his travel to bring the Corporal back to his resting place so he can be at peace. Along the way they meet friends, both living and not, ghosts, and Undying soldiers who are after Harvey's core. When Harvey and Keili are separated Keili wonders if she will ever see Harvey again despite his last words to her, "Goodbye Keili, you will never see me again."  
Conflict:  
The main conflict is mostly external, between Keili, Harvey, and Joachim. Joachim is trying to kill Harvey but neither Keili or Harvey is ready to just let that happen. There is some internal conflict, mainly being Harvey thinking of his old life. Harvey thinks of himself as a murderer and after Keili sees his murder of the Corporal he refuses to touch convinced that, "It was better that he didn't dirty her clean, white skin" he felt that he could still see the blood on his hands from the hundreds of people he killed.  
Theme:  
Keili is slightly hard to put in words. It was originally in a Shojo magazine but was thought of more as Shonen-style. It could be thought of as a horror story about ghosts seeking redemption. It could be seen as a Sci-Fi story with themes of religion, war, life, and death. but no matter how you look at it Keili is an intriguing tale that keeps you interested enough to see what will happen to our loved but mismatched travelers.  
Reflection:  
Keili is amazing, the style of writing, the idea, and how realistic the story is, not to mention the wonderful characters who are created so unusually but are so lovable, are all factors of why I love this book! I would recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind a hint of gore mixed into a fabulous array of ideas, perfect to maintain a healthy manga diet. I already have four people who wish to read it after my recommendation but I don't plan to stop there! So far they have made no movie of Keili but it would make an amazing anime*. They have made a manga version of Keili and it follows the story line perfectly. For those who have a harder time visualizing the book the manga would be a great helper. The manga version is split into two books, both of which are around 192 pages each but it is made of completely black and white pictures and there are fewer words used since the pictures take care of detail. Kabei-san is an amazing author and very respectable, she is the type of writer i can only hope to be. The story was easy to relate to once you put yourself in their shoes, if you think like them everything works out but even if you don't find the characters relatable it is still a great story to read seriously or even just to pas time. Kabei-san, or should I say Kabei-sama* is so wonderful and I can't wait to read the rest of her books!

*Shojo- girl manga  
*Shonen- boy manga  
*San- Mrs., Mr., Ms.  
*Anime- Japanese cartoons like a T.V. show of manga  
*Manga- Japanese comic books  
*Sama- added to the name of someone you admire or respect.  
*Kabei-san- in Japan it is respectful to use one's last name if you are not close with them.  
P.S.- for teacher to the end of names you add -sensei.

Thanx for reading! Please reveiw! Make me happy! The next chapter will be my creative project for this and I wrote a short story so I hope you like it! I really hope there isn't any grammar or spelling errors because my laptop broke so I have to use my mom's computer which has no spell check! Let's hope I do well on this!


	2. Creative Project

This is my creative Project on Keili and I wanted to post it here so you all can see it tell me how I did and if you end up doing this too then you will have the main idea for it! Enjoy! Please tell me what you think about it!

Love,

XIII

"Ephraim..." Ephraim? Oh that's my name from when I was in the Undying Corps. "Ephraim, how many did you kill?" Joachim asked with a smile on his face. That's depressing; cut it out Joachim.  
"That's a depressing question." Jude stated. I agree, Jude was our superior officer.  
"I'm not interested in how many I killed. I just killed them. And in actuality we killed all of them, and the war ended." I told him emotionlessly I had blood splattered on my face and it was dripping off of the blade of my katana. Jude and Joachim both had the same thing, the blood of those soldiers we killed. Joachim was an odd one, when we were in the mine killing the ones who tried to escape, he was laughing.  
The next thing we knew, it was our time to die.  
"Church soldiers! Scatter! Ephraim! Joachim!" Jude yelled as the soldiers in white armor came in. They were all armed with carbonization guns. When they were used on an Undying it makes it harder for us to heal. The gun stops the blood from flowing to that area so you would have to cut yourself to get the blood on that wound not to mention then you have to wait for the new wound to heal for it to be any good. It ends up with a very masochistic situation and no sane person should have to go through that. A loud sound of the guns firing reached my ears along with Jude's scream of pain. I looked hurriedly over my shoulder to see Jude being blown apart by the guns. Pieces of his flesh flew past his body, or what was left of it.  
"Jude!" I screamed. I looked over at Joachim to see what we should do but he only smiled and continued running.  
"Joachim... You'd abandon Jude?" I asked in confusion. Once again he only smiled. Burning pain, sharp, shooting, pain went through my entire body as I was hit by the fire. It hurt so badly, I wanted to scream, I wanted to cry but I found that I couldn't do anything. From my place on the ground I could see Joachim running still. Like a child I wanted to call out to him, but that would be bad. One, I knew he wouldn't even look back. And two the soldiers would know I was still alive, I couldn't handle anymore pain. The soldiers followed Joachim but he was probably far away by now. They wouldn't catch him.  
With the church at the helm, the whole world was pushing the blame onto each other. The role of "scrape goat" was assigned to us. The reason behind the formation of the church's Undying-hunting force... the truth behind our legend, that of the "Demons of War"...  
Where could I run? And how? Was this the battle field I fought on? In the sea of dead bodies spread before my eyes... I felt it would be easier to just lie there and rot. But no matter how many days went by, I stayed conscious. Every night... every single night, I listened to the grudges of the corpses. Weeks passed... even when the worms ate my flesh as I lay there, it healed right away. And so I thought, "This must be my punishment." I was sure I had taken the lost time in all the lives of the people I had killed. And so I had such a long, long time forced onto me that I couldn't see the end of it. To get to that end, I couldn't afford to sleep. At the very least, I'll never kill anyone ever again. It's tiring, living shares of lives intended for others. I wish I could return this time to all the people I have killed up until now... and have them forgive me.  
After months of slow and painful healing, my entire left side was blown off, I was finally able to move around. Once I stood I nearly fell from not having used my legs in so long but after a few minutes of practice I was doing much better. Where was Joachim? Was he even alive? Should I even be alive? So many questions ran through my mind but I had no answers. I did know however that I needed to get away from here. Being around the dead bodies was making me ill. I stumbled away from the area and into the dense forest that surrounded it. I accidently kicked something and when I looked down I saw a portable radio. It made a loud whining sound then cut to static. I bent down to pick it up but then the static started to become visible! It started taking shape and I noticed it was a man, one of his legs was missing from below his knee. I recognized him, he was one of the last soldiers I had killed.  
"Screeeeeeeeeeeech!" he opened his mouth but all that came out was a loud feedback. I fell backwards away from the noise and covered my ears. The static body started to fade away, back into the radio. Once it was all gone I cautiously reached for the radio. It was still making the same static sound but it was mush quieter now. When I moved it, it made another loud noise but then it became quieter. I started messing with the knob on it to see if it still worked. After a few minutes of messing with it I was about ready to give up but then I heard a voice. Going back to the station it came from I could make out the voice of a man, it was staticky but clear.  
"Of all the things in the world I just have to be in a radio. Those stupid krrrssshh Demons its all their fault. If they just krrrssshh left us alone then we wouldn't-" As interesting as it was to listen to him ramble I interrupted.  
"Um, Hello?" I asked uncertainly. The voice became silent for a moment.  
"Who are you?" The fuzzy voice asked.  
"Well my name's... Harvey." I said after a few seconds. I no longer wanted to be Ephraim, the Demon of War.  
"Hm, Herbie, you can call me krrrssshh Corporal." the voice, Corporal, told me.  
"It's Harvey." I repeated.  
"Sure thing Herbie." He said, I could almost hear the smirk in his voice.  
"You know I can leave you here." I said seriously, he was already getting on my nerves!  
"No you can not! You found me so you will take me back!" Corporal shouted, the feedback was even louder with that.  
"Back where?" I sighed while rubbing my ears, it was loud!  
"Back to my grave. Come on Herbie, we need to start moving." Corporal ordered.  
"It's Harvey. Why should I take you?" I asked sighing, I didn't want to be stuck with him!  
"You were the one that killed krrrsshh me. The least you can do is take me back." He told me seriously but I could hear the faint teasing tone behind the static.  
"Fine. I'll take you back, but that's it."

Thanx for reading! Please reveiw! Make me happy! I really hope there isn't any grammar or spelling errors because my laptop broke so I have to use my mom's computer which has no spell check! Let's hope I do well on this!


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